Arts

When Christians pray and worship at Church of the Cross in Senigallia, Italy, they face a bold painting of Christ's burial.

The picture depicts the crucified Christ being carried by St. John the Evangelist, Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea. The Blessed Virgin sorrowfully watches and Mary Magdalen kneels in prayer. Three nails, marked by the blood Christ shed for our sins, and His crown of thorns jump out in the foreground. The others with whom He was crucified remain on crosses in the distant background.

He was a poor student who struggled in the seminary, regarded as not bright enough to be a priest. Yet he not only succeeded as a priest, he is the patron of priests and a canonized saint. He is St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars, and his story will be told in two upcoming performances in the St. Louis Archdiocese.

VATICAN CITY -- Looking at the centuries-old buildings and palaces, not many people would know that the Vatican has become a techie paradise, a wonderland of modern equipment and know-how.

For instance, the Vatican Library is using NASA technology to digitize its treasures, according to some of the latest facts listed in the "The Activity of the Holy See: 2010," a yearbook published by the Vatican in September.

Called Flexible Image Transport System, the digital file format is standard among the world's astronomers for storing, sending and manipulating images.

PHILADELPHIA — Matthew, Mark, Luke and John told us all about what Jesus said and did, but not one of them mentioned what he looked like.

The vaguely European-featured Jesus with a brown beard and hair was pretty much the standard for most of history, at least until Rembrandt van Rijn, the greatest painter, draftsman and printmaker of the Dutch Golden Age, came along. In the mid-17th century he and students at his Amsterdam studio painted a series of at least eight heads of Christ that set the liturgical art world on its ear.